Page 27 of Caleb's Salvation
“Not with those boobs. We’re trying to push buttons, Vivienne. And here.” Shelby held out a small vial to me. “It’s a lip gloss. Nothing over the top. Just a little extra something.”
I removed the lip brush from the tube. It was a nude gloss. Another first for me. Makeup.
The wordfloozyechoed through my head, but that was Pop talking. I was a woman going on a date. I could let my hair down and wear lip gloss, damn it. I spread the gloss around my lips and smacked them. It felt exotic.
“Well?”
“Well,” Shelby said, smugly. “I’m just sorry I have to stay back with Sammy and I won’t be able to catch Cal’s expression when he sees you tonight. Kate has promised to take detailed mental notes.”
“What if he’s not even there?” I asked her.
“He’ll be there,” she said, fluffing my hair over my shoulder. “Jackson and Eli are in on the plan. They won’t let him off the hook tonight.”
The knock on my door startled me.
“Hey, Vivy, it’s me,” Ty called from the other side of the door.
I felt another twinge of guilt. “Just a second,” I called to him. To Shelby I said, “I feel bad.”
“Hey, Ty is a grown man. As long you don’t play with his feelings, he knows the risk. I mean, my goodness, I could have gone out on a date with Eli and thought he was as boring as a lump of coal. Not that I could have ever thought that about him. He was so funny and kind right from the beginning—”
“Shelby!”
“Right. Sorry. I get carried away. I’m only saying, Ty shouldn’t have any expectations. It’s a date. It’s supposed to be fun. That’s all.”
A date. Fun. It wasn’t something I’d had a lot of in my life and I wasn’t going to let a guilty conscience ruin in it.
I walked over to the door and opened it with a smile.
Ty’s jaw practically dropped. “Oh fuck, you’re hot.”
I winced. “Uh, thanks.”
“Sorry, that was crude,” he apologized. “It’s just, usually, you’re all buttoned up and stuff. Fuck, that was probably wrong, too.”
“It’s okay, Ty. Let’s just go.”
“Yeah. Okay. I borrowed one of the guys’ trucks.”
I nodded. The managers at camp all had their own trucks, but the lower-level workers had to make do with borrowing, I knew. It’s why the guys from camp always came into Bud’s in waves.
“Let me just kiss Sam goodnight.”
“Hey, Sammy! What’s up buddy?” Ty waved to him.
I picked Sam up out of his playpen and gave him some pecks on the cheek. He was waving his fists.
“Dadadada.”
“Holy shit? Did he just call meDada?” Ty asked.
“No,” I said quickly. Maybe too quickly because Ty seemed startled by my insistence. “It’s just baby talk. Usually, it’s because he wants his bottle.”
Shelby came over and took him from me, while I put my coat on and started to button up. “Then a bottle it is. You two go on now and have some fun.”
I waved to Sam one last time, then followed Ty to his truck. We’d hung out a bunch of times since I’d gotten to town, but for the first time, I found myself nervous and tongue tied.
I wasn’t sure if it was because I was actually on a date, or because I knew I was using him in some respect.
